


Scientific Conundrum

by UniverseHeart



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Clones, F/M, Falling In Love, Female Characters, Human/Pokemon Relationship(s), Mad Scientists
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-01-17 14:09:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12367380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UniverseHeart/pseuds/UniverseHeart
Summary: A young woman joins the scientific undertaking in creating the strongest Pokemon in the World. Unbeknownst to her, the reasons for this project are far more sinister than she could initially suspect. Closely tied in with her project is a little, teal-haired girl, who lives and breathes in a large glass tank somewhere within the facility...This is an AU based on the Japanese Radio Drama and the first Pokemon Movie.





	1. The Secluded Laboratory

**Author's Note:**

> As a note beforehand, I would like to say that it has been years since I have written any fanfiction. I also have the terrible habit of never having finished a multi-chapter fanfic before. This is yet another try to break this bad habit and write a complete fanfic for once.  
> If you have any questions, comments and suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments section!  
> I hope you enjoy this fanfic and want to thank you in advance for reading!

The sound of the helicopter was deafening to her ears, but she resisted the urge to cover her ears from the onslaught of sound. Her loose hair swayed in the strong wind as she made her way down the ramp to the landing deck, where their vehicle had just landed. Her escort followed her out, carrying her suitcase for her.  
As the young woman looked up, she saw that she was already expected. At least five people were standing there, having waited for her arrival as well as the arrival of other goods necessary for living on this deserted island in the middle of the ocean. 

"Greetings to you, Miss Rogowska", the oldest of the people there said in greeting, just seconds after the engine had died down. A man with greyish hair, a large nose and glasses on his face approached her, dressed in a white lab coat. The woman recognized this person immediately from their last encounter, which had happened not too long ago on the mainland during an arranged job interview. She had participated in this interview in the hopes of gaining a new employment, and the prospects offered here certainly seemed interesting to her. It was not any day that one got the chance to work on a top-secret project on an island and as per regulation, had to stay, work and live there for the entire duration of it. It fit her, the woman thought, as she always had preferred to live in seclusion from others. An island would be the perfect place for her.

"Thank you, Doctor Fuji", she replied, reaching her hand out for him, which he accepted and briefly shook. "New Island certainly looks interesting at first glance." "That it is, Miss Rogowska", said the older man in agreement, "now, since you just arrived here, we will first give you some time to rest. Your journey must have been exhausting." "Yes, but I think I will be back to full capacity with a little rest." "Very good. We will make an in-depth introduction of your co-workers as well as these facilities at a later date." With a clap of his hands, another woman with black hair approached them, carrying a clipboard in her hands. From the first glance, she seemed to be an assistant of some sort - she had a slender figure and dark eyes, giving off a serious air about her. Dr. Fuji introduced her as well  
"This is Dr. Yumiko. She will show you your new living quarters. In the meantime, I must attend other matters, but I am sure that we will see and talk with each other very soon." With a polite bow, Dr. Fuji turned around to go and speak with the operators of the helicopter, probably to discuss the recent shipments. The woman looked up into the blue sky and the helicopter behind her briefly, before grabbing ahold of the suitcase that contained all of her important belongings. Dr. Yumiko waited for her patiently, before she simply stated "Now, please follow me." Without many words, the young woman followed. 

************************

Monika Rogowska had been in this laboratory complex for two days now, located on a secluded natural island out in the open sea. The buildings, containing living quarters for the researchers as well as the various parts of the laboratories, were built right on top of it. 

There was a very good reason why they were currently living in such a remote location, as the research that was currently conducted in their laboratories might be deemed by most to be risky and highly controversial; but it was like a dream for any geneticist who has ever seriously considered putting their knowledge to practical use and create a living, completely artificial being. Such a chance was only ever offered here; out in the open sea, in international waters which did not belong to any country, the laws of them didn't exactly apply here. Hence, the ban of creating living clones and keeping them sustained even way past the embryonic stage was not in use. The seclusion and the fact that any and all workers were only allowed to work on New Island if they had a top-secret security clearance only helped the research conducted there to blossom. A handful of workers were permanently stationed, while others were flown in periodically by helicopters with black and covered windows. Their island was also not marked on any existing map, and any workers who were flown in here were thus prevented to know their exact location. 

The brunette woman with red glasses had only recently been stationed on this remote island and was supposed to become one of its permanent residents. She came here after having successfully undertaken the strict hiring regiment, and now belonged to the few chosen ones who will be putting their knowledge to use in order to obtain every last secret that life itself holds. Their group leader was Dr. Fuji, an experienced scientist in the field of cloning and genetic engineering, and Monika was scheduled to meet this man soon to get a tour of the facilities and further discuss her participation for the project ahead. 

Monika has had the last two days after her initial arrival to herself, in order to rest from her long journey as well as to get accustomed to her new living quarters. She had been busy unpacking her belongings and rearranging her room, when she got a call on her telephone.

"Mrs. Rogowska, I call to remind you of your scheduled meeting at 1 pm. Mrs. Westervelt will be coming to show you the way."  
"Thank you."

A click on the telephone and this short exchange was over. The woman looked to the electronic clock, displaying that she had maybe 15 minutes left before someone would come to fetch her, and bring her to her new colleagues for a formal introduction and a subsequent tour of the facilities. Even Dr. Fuji himself will be introducing himself to her and personally explain what tasks will lie ahead of her. To say she was nervous would be the understatement of the year. In fact, she never had thought that she would be able to actually get the job here. It has taken her almost a year of applications everywhere before she had been able to land this new job. And while she had a huge fear of potential failure, she also told herself that she will give it her all, no matter what. This is also why she agreed to moving to New Island as a permanent resident. If this is what the job asked of her, then she would do that. Monika just hoped that she would get used quickly to her new environment and to the new people here.  
A knock on her door startled her, but with a quick look at the clock, she had realized that her time was already up. She stood up to answer the door, and was met with a fellow researcher - a woman dressed in a white labcoat, with blonde, shoulder-long hair awaited her. She had a wider frame than Dr. Yumiko, but seemed friendly and almost cheerful.  
"Hello, I am Natalia Westervelt."  
"I am Monika Rogowska, and have just arrived here two days ago."  
Monika didn't know what else to say.  
"I am aware of that", Natalia said, slightly stepping into the room, "You are one of the newbies who just arrived here."  
The blonde woman took a look around the room, and then focused her gaze on Monika.  
"I know that life here on the island can be pretty overwhelming at first, but you will get used to it in time."  
Monika smiled at that. "I sure hope so. So far, it seems pretty lonely. Well, lonelier than usual, since I don't know anybody here yet, except for our boss. That is, if Dr. Fuji IS your boss as well - I don't know anything about the internal hierarchy of this place yet either." Natalia smiled back. 

"I can confirm that Dr. Fuji is my boss as well. He is the one who runs this entire island after all, which of course include all of our projects and side-projects. You do belong to group C, right? So you will be working very closely with him. And lucky you, I belong to this group as well, so you will have at least one face you know around here."  
"I am glad about that, thank you, erm.."  
"You can call me by my first name, if you want."  
"Thank you, Natalia. You can call me by my first name as well"  
"There is nothing to thank me for, Monika. Just keep close to me, and I will explain everything to you about this place, if you'd like. I hope we can become friends, you seem to be a very nice person."  
With this, Natalia stepped out of the room, indicating for Monika to follow her. 

***************************

Monika was very impressed by this place. She could hardly believe that she currently was located on an island. The place looked very modern, albeit a little bit cold, as the two women walked along several corridors which seemed to be pretty convoluted and mostly grey in color. The brunette just knew it would be a pain in the ass to remember which way to go back later on. Natalia must have noticed her deep sigh that she had exhaled at that thought.  
"Haha, I know this place is very large and that it is easy to get lost in here. Hence why we give THIS to newbies."  
She stopped, and searched around for something in her lab coat, giving it to Monika as soon as she found it. The woman noticed that it seemed to be a pamphlet of some sort, and upon opening it, realized that it was a map of this place. 

"The New Island Laboratory is home to many different sections of labs", Natalia explained. "Besides our group, there are several others who have slightly other projects they work on. We, from Team C, are working specifically on cloning. There are other groups who for example focus on researching breathable liquids and stasis possibilities, methods to keep living organisms in suspended animation."  
Monika took a look at the map and frowned. Looking up from the map, she noticed a sign nearby, which told her the number of the corridor they were in. Level 7. Huh, now the map made sense to her once she found it on the map. 

"Thanks, Natalia. Say, how long did it take until you didn't need the map?"  
"Oh, at least a few weeks. Until you get a feeling for this place, you will probably need the map for a while, so don't lose it. But you will get used to it eventually. The routes to the laboratories of our team will be pretty easy for you to remember."

"The other projects sound interesting too!", Monika remarked, "what other things are going on here as well?" 

"Hmm, for some reason, one of our groups is studying brain activities, neural connections and memory retrieval", Natalia answered, "It's a bit creepy isn't it? Our group is supposed to create clones, and sometimes the people from this group come in to measure the brain activity of our subjects. One could think that one possible application would be to combine their research with ours! Imagine, clones running around who share your memories! Creepy!" 

She said this with an amused tone, and Monika noticed that her new acquaintance seemed to have a taste for the unusual, but she liked that. Hopefully they would become closer friends as they continue to work on their project. In any case, it made her feel way better to know now that there was someone with whom she could talk. All the better that Natalia seemed to be a very nice woman.  
As they continued walking, they came across a corridor which contained laboratories that allowed a look inside the labs. Several people seemed to be hard at work inside, standing by machines, checking their readouts, or pipetting something into tubes on their work benches. Other scientists seemed to be in a deep discussion, and she could see several huge glass containers, filled with an amber liquid that caught her interest - especially since something seemed to float inside of them, though she couldn't make out what exactly it was due to the distance. She could only assume it must be some of the experimental subjects here. In other word, clones. A slight shiver went down her spine at the sight. 

She was woken from her fascination with a slight startle as Natalia came to an abrupt halt before her. She hadn't noticed the big doors they both were standing in front of now. 

"Here it is. This is one of he smaller room by far. I was instructed to bring you to Dr. Fuji, as he would now like to discuss the project with you in further details. I was also told by him that after he introduced you to it, we will be having a meeting with the entire Team C, to get to know each other. Several other newbies will also attend the meeting. I'll be back soon to fetch you for that, okay?"  
Natalia smiled at her, giving her a pat on the back.  
"And don't worry, Dr. Fuji is actually a nice man, even if he sometimes seems to be very strict. I am sure he will also give you a small, more detailed tour of our facilities as well. Anyway, I have to head back to my experiments for now, see you soon!" 

Natalia opened the door for Monika and gestured for her to come in. As soon as Monika had stepped inside, Natalia turned around and closed the door behind her. 

The brunette woman had stepped into one of the smaller laboratories. Dr. Fuji had seemed to be talking with another man, but then noticed that she had arrived to meet him, so he excused himself and went to talk to Monika. 

"Oh, Hello. It is nice to see you again. As you know, my name is Dr. Fuji and I am the lead scientist of New Island", the older man said as he extended his hand towards the woman, who gladly took the handshake. 

"I am Dr. Rogowska, and I want to thank you for inviting me to join your research group", Monika replied. Dr. Fuji nodded and offered her a warm smile in return.  
"I hope that you were able to get used to island life during the last two days. I know it can get pretty lonely out here, as the usual pleasantries of our civilization aren't available."  
"Yes, I noticed. There aren't any supermarkets around", the woman replied jokingly, earning a slight laugh from Dr. Fuji.  
"I can assure you though that even if supermarkets are missing, everything that is needed is shipped to us on a regular basis. As for the other needs, we have several recreation rooms in this facility as well. A good rest is of a high importance in our field, especially if we use our brains so extensively." 

Monika followed dutifully behind Dr. Fuji, who has been leading her through several corridors, pointing out all the different rooms to her as well as explaining in short words what kind of equipment was to be found inside. One of the rooms contained everything needed for DNA analysis: an automatic DNA extraction machine, and a sequencer that was able to analyze the exact composition of the DNA. The woman tried her hardest to memorize where each room was found and what they contained, but found that it was almost impossible to do for the first time. With a glance at her, Dr. Fuji could tell of her small problem. 

"I know that all of this might be a bit much at first and that you might get lost inside of our facilities for the first few days. Then again, so far everyone of our group did during their acclimation time. If you ever have any questions or get lost, you are welcome to ask any of your colleagues."

The Doctor came to an abrupt halt in front of a heavy set of doors. 

"Now I think is the time where I explain to you what your task is and what we have hired you for. The thing is that we needed additional staff for our next big undertaking."

He reached out for a panel right next to the door, putting his thumb on a thumb print scanner. With a quiet whizz, the heavy doors opened and revealed a large room, containing several incubation tanks filled with amber-colored liquid. A little bit to the left side of the room was a huge machine, five times as large as a human and shaped like an ammonite, grey in color. Three different screens were mounted on the machine, and Monika noticed several researchers intently discussing something right in front of them. Out of this machine, a connection to several incubation tanks was protruding. The tanks were currently un-occupied, but the woman had a feeling that this will not be the status quo forever. 

"One huge step in the advancements of genetic engineering was the discovery of a manufactured form of amniotic fluid which allows us to grow artificial organisms in the incubation tanks you see here." 

The Doctor took a few steps forward, until he reached one of the large incubation tanks. With one hand, he reached out, touching the glass and turning to Monika. 

"These are our incubation units. As you can see, they are currently filled with a special formula of synthetic amniotic fluid. I think that you are well aware that genetically altered embryos are normally to be destroyed after a time of 6 weeks has passed. During this time, the embryos are usually too small to be put into such large tanks. However...", Fuji paused, "Our facility doesn't destroy these young embryos. Instead, once they reach a certain age, they are transferred into the incubation units you see here for further gestation. The see-through glass allows us to directly study the gestation process and has so far provided us with invaluable knowledge of embryogenesis." 

The brunette woman was in awe as her brown eyes focused on the tanks. Her mind was already flooded with all the possibilities that such incubation tanks might hold for research. Having the ability to grow beings independent of a uterus would make it possible to provide thousands of infertile couples with the children they had always wanted, should this technology ever be in use for human beings. But even if not, this would revolutionize Pokemon breeding, if the manufacturing technique is advanced enough for serial use. It even provided a tool to directly study the phonotypical aberrations of genetic diseases and can utilized for new methods of genetic therapy. Her heart pounded when she just thought of all the possibilities. But one certain question also popped up in her mind that she blurted out almost immediately:

"Do you grow the engineered beings to completion?"

"Ahhh", Dr. Fuji said, "Now you have come to the crux of the matter."  
He let out a deep sigh and shook his head. 

"Unfortunately, this is the main problem we have so far encountered. We have been focusing on cloning specimens from different Pokémon species, but throughout the years, none of them have made it to completion. Every single one of them perished, due to unknown reasons. We can't even begin to understand why." 

"And it's not because some major component is missing? Maybe something that only a mother Pokémon can supply? Like, some maternal proteins or hormones?"

"We have considered this possibility also and have made several upgrades to our formula of amniotic fluid in the past to account for this", the older man replied, "Yet our clones still perish if kept in a tank for too long. This issue is the most pressing however, given the next project we are supposed to take care of."

Monika carefully looked at Dr. Fuji, who seemed to be distant and lost in thoughts. It seemed that something else entirely seemed to occupy him as well, and for a split-second, she could have sworn that she saw a dark and sad expression on her superior's face before it quickly faded. The project that was mentioned made her feel even more curious now, but she could tell what it might be. Obviously, a clone would have to be made and had to survive the entire process of its creation. But which Pokémon would they use? They had so many to choose from.

"Sir, I assume you want to bring a clone to full maturation, so that it can leave the tank, right? But which Pokémon do you want to use as the base?"

Dr. Fuji nodded, with a gleam in his eyes when he noticed that Monika could follow his hints so well. 

"That is a very good question, Dr. Rogowska. The base itself is also a problematic case, as it will most likely be incomplete."  
Monika took a breath to ask a further question, but Fuji interrupted her with a raised hand. 

"To answer your question, the base is a fossil. However, it is not just any fossil. It's what we think to be the fossilized eyebrow of the Legendary Pokémon Mew. The truth is, we have been commissioned by someone to create a replica based on this fossil. However, not an exact replica, but a modified one." 

"So, has the DNA of this fossil already been sequenced?" 

"Yes, though not completely yet. But from what we have seen, the gene structure of the sample is very interesting. While there are certain gaps, we can assume that Mew might be the ancestor of all Pokémon. While this is not exactly a proven fact, a first look at it has led to this hypothesis." 

The young woman frowned. She has never heard of this elusive Pokémon named Mew before, however, if they already have a fossil to use as a base for cloning attempts, that meant that this Pokémon was indeed real. It was a bit ironic though that the base contained gaps, as this might well play into the plan to alter the clone according to the specifications given by whoever the commissioner was. 

"And I guess you need me to help you with designing the genetic structure of the modified clone?" 

"Indeed. I want you to help my team to think about what we want to use to fill the gaps and how we want to alter the given sequence of Mew according to our commissioner's wishes. Once we have the initial design, I want us to focus on solving the problem of maturation." 

Monika was intrigued by this project. They would be going on to create not only a clone, but one that will most definitely be a hybrid containing genes of various beings within him. 

"Now, I have only one condition here that I want my research team to incorporate: I want to also use human genes to fill the gaps."

That took the woman aback.

"Human genes as filler? Why?", she blurted out in surprise. 

"One of the conditions of the commission. This is something I must insist on." She could tell from the look on Dr. Fuji's face that he meant that seriously. And somehow she had the feeling that there was some darker, other reason behind this insistence. 

He raised both his hands and patted Monika's shoulders lightly. He smiled at her, as he said: "Now, we need to discuss this matter in more depth with your group. Please follow me."

The older man has seen the utter surprise on the face of this young woman, but he knew that she would follow along. It was something he needed to do, and he had a reason for it that he could not tell anyone else on this island. It was a bold-faced lie that human genes needed to be implemented, but he had a deep-seated personal reason for this. 

They both stepped out of the huge room, their steps thudding on the metal floor beneath them as they went on their way. 

Unknown to almost everyone, deep inside the facility a young human girl was sleeping in an incubation tank, eagerly waiting for the return of her father.


	2. The Pact with the Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> About time that I finally updated this fanfiction. I was stumped for quite a long time about giving names to the different scientists, and while they may not be known very well in this chapter yet, future chapters will hopefully shed a light on their personalities a bit more. 
> 
> Summary: Sakaki/Giovanni from Team Rocket is making his first entrance; the scientific team is put in front of a huge problem to be overcome.

The dark hum of machines could be heard throughout the darkened facility, which was only illuminated by the amber light that shone from the glass tanks nearby. Audibly discernible, Bubbles floated in a constant stream within the tubes, and a machine nearby emitted a constant beeping sound, which indicated that all was in order.   
Another source of illumination within the room also proved to be the monitor of a large, carefully crafted machine with an in-built computer, which provided a whitish-blue light that contrasted the amber hues around the man who was standing in front of the machine, studying the readouts. Below the monitor, encased in a compartment out of glass and surrounded by a careful array of lasers lay the object of interest to the man - it was a fossil, no more than two centimeters in length - an eyelash said to belong to a Pokémon from old legends which no one has seen for centuries. Not long ago, it has been recovered by a search party from the mountains somewhere in South America, where they had been digging for fossils of rare Pokémon and then chanced upon this find. It was astonishing that this expedition team was able to detect this fragile object without entirely breaking it when one considered how thin and tiny it was, but it has shown a very interesting characteristic - it emitted a greenish light under the right lighting conditions, almost as if it had a mysterious energy embedded into it. 

While most of the eyelash rested peacefully in its glass encasing, a tiny broken off piece of the fossil was currently analyzed by the fully automated machine, which was in fact a DNA sequencer and currently running to complete the task and read the DNA that the earlier sample collection hopefully captured out of the eyelash in question. The man with his wavy greyish hair was brushing his finger through the mustache on his chin, lost in thought as he saw the sequence being read out fly past the screen. He could see that there was a huge problem in the sequence, as large portions of it were not able to be read and thus appeared on the screen as blanks. But in the cases where the DNA could be read, all sorts of combinations of the letters A,T, G and C were seen on the screen. He seemed to wait for something to happen when a loud beep came from the machine, signaling the end of the analysis as the message flashed on the screen simultaneously. Then a robotic voice announced:   
"Analysis complete. Analysis results to sample: Sample is a fossilized eyelash of Pokémon origin. The Pokémon species is unknown and does not match any other known Pokémon in the database." This announcement excited the man beyond measure, as he further focused on the results. 

The machine voice continued:  
"Vocalization for confirmation of Pokémon species is possible. When vocalization is run based on DNA results, we get the following..."   
The sequencer machine stopped as the humming of it dimmed in a haunting diminuendo. In the next moment, the sound of a Pokémon thought extinct could be heard, distorted in a grotesque, lifeless robotic form. 

"MEW." It repeated a few times, with the sound of bubbles running in the background, never ceasing their rhythm...   
"MEW. MEW. MEW."   
"Mew...?", the man repeated, thinking hard about the puzzling result. As he thought back to all the different Pokémon known to him, he found that he never had heard of this mysterious Pokémon named Mew before. So it seemed that the person who had provided him with this fossil as well as all the means to keep his secret laboratory on New Island running has been right in his hunches after all. If the analysis was true, they had on their hands real and tangible evidence of an unknown Pokémon species that could potentially be revived! Though he was not sure what to do about the gaps in the DNA sequence quite yet. 

"Scan for historic records, if possible", he said to the machine, which promptly followed this voice command. A minute later, it announced. "One recorded incidence in history: The voice belongs to a Pokémon said to have lived in the jungles of South America. It is known as the "Phantom Pokémon"."  
So they indeed had an invaluable fossil in their possession, and now had the DNA they needed to fulfill the comission that had made it possible for New Island to come into existence.   
Dr. Fuji, stroking through his beard, remembered the moment in which he had been approached by a certain individual, who found him right at the time he needed it. He had been a struggling researcher then as his funding had run out once he ventured deeper into the realms and practice of cloning. He didn't have to worry about money in the years prior - funding had been easily obtainable from the scientific community when he still published scientific research papers on embryology and his findings about recognizing possible birth defects in early embryonic development, but all of this found its sudden end ever since this one incident which had changed his life forever. 

He gritted his teeth at the memory, his heart stricken by deep grief that could not be entirely soothed. If this incident had never occurred, he wouldn't be here right now. He would be at home, together with his wife and child, his little girl, the light of his life. He would have a FAMILY, instead of living life alone and abandoned by all his loved ones. It was only fitting that he ended up on a deserted island in the middle of the Ocean, where no one could find him and where no one could stop him from at least trying to retrieve what he had lost, albeit by artificial means.   
He was interrupted from further delving into his memories when he heard footsteps coming his way. When he turned around to look who it was that approached him, he saw another man come closer to him. He was much younger than Dr. Fuji, had short black hair and was wearing a pair of black glasses with rectangular frames on his nose. His usually blue eyes were obscured by the darkness of the room. "Mikhail, is there something you need me for?", Dr. Fuji asked.  
The man replied in a heavy russian accent. "Yes. I wanted to inform you about the arrival of our beneficiary, Sakaki-sama. He wishes to speak to you about the project that he had given to us." "Where is he currently?" 

"I am right here", came the reply, and directly behind Mikhail, a man in an orange suit came out of the shadows, stepping towards Dr. Fuji. The man was well dressed and elegant, giving out the air of absolute authority. Right beside him, a Persian stepped out, dutifully following its master at every step. Fuji didn't know how long the three of them had been present or if they had heard the results that the machine had announced moments earlier, but his question was answered when Sakaki remarked: "So it is the Phantom Pokemon Mew's fossil after all." "Yes", the doctor replied, indicating with a hand gesture to Sakaki that he may come closer to the computer monitor to see the results for himself. Sakaki quickly glanced over the results, nodding to himself, before returning his attention to the older man. "Can you recreate the phantom Mew from the analysis of the fossil?" That was a very good question, the older man remarked in his mind. When he considered the gaps in the DNA, he wasn't so sure, but he wanted to avoid worrying their beneficiary. After all, before him stood the man who had given him all the means he needed to retrieve what he had lost, and thus he was deeply indebted to him. Even with the given problems, he would do what he could to fulfill Sakaki's request as best as possible. 

"Mr. Sakaki, if you ask me 'Can you do it?', I will answer that I have succeeded with other Pokémon before."

A dark smile appeared on the face of Team Rocket's Leader to that, but it was obvious that his boss couldn't be entirely convinced. "But there is something wrong, right, Dr. Fuji?" That was not spoken in an accusatory tone of voice, instead simply stated as a fact. Sakaki studied the monitor readout more carefully and Fuji could see the frown that formed on the face of the man in orange. "I am not sure if that goes true for the Phantom Pokémon as well. It's not like there weren't failures before", Fuji commented, partially in defeat when he remembered some of the failures of the past months. "We can't make profits if we are afraid of failure. Dr. Fuji, I assure you that I will give you all the means you need to recreate the phantom Pokémon. We all know that Pokémon are what makes money. And this Pokémon, Mew, is the rarest Pokémon in the world. So rare that we have only found one fossil of it so far. If you can recreate a Pokémon from that, even if it is not an exact copy, it will still be a very valuable asset. We will make a fortune off of it nonetheless. I only care about it being in my possession. How you are going to achieve that is none of my concern, Dr. Fuji. I trust that you are going to fulfill my order to my satisfaction." The man looked up from the monitor, his icy glare staring at the old researcher. It was enough to make it clear that they had no choice but to give it their best.   
"My only stipulation is that the clone be modified so that it is even stronger than Mew." Both Mikhail and Dr. Fuji were slightly taken aback by this request, as it was not known how strong the Phantom Pokémon really would be, so to create an even stronger version out of that would be like working with shadows. But both did not dare to speak up nonetheless. 

 

Mikhail though raised a valid concern: "Sir, with all due respect, we need to speak with you more closely about the details of your commission in this case. If you wish a modification of the DNA base, you need to tell us exactly what characteristics you wish the copy to have so that we can incorporate this into the genetic code for this being." The young man went over to the monitor, indicating the gaps that were found in the genetic code of the fossil. "As you can see, even though we now have the DNA of the Phantom Pokémon, it is still an incomplete blueprint, meaning that we have lots of space to include your ideas here." 

 

Sakaki nodded to himself, as if deep in thought. "You are right, Dr. Orlov", he agreed, "It is fortunate then that the blueprint is incomplete." He turned around, facing Dr. Fuji again. "I am counting on you to bring this being into full completion this time. It has to be ALIVE when it emerges out of the tank."   
"That will be... hard to do. Even copies of a human have not succeeded yet", the older man commented, to which Team Rocket's leader answered: " I don't need a copy of a human. Increasing humans won't make money. Pokémon are what makes money. Though...", and he slowly walked past Dr. Fuji, heading back to the entrance, "if you wish to also incorporate some human genes in order to further your own - _pet project_ \- you are welcome to do so."

Fuji gritted his teeth again, picking up on the subtle hint that his boss made. Even Dr. Mihail Orlov, Fuji's right hand man, realized what Sakaki was talking about. "Fuji...?" "It's okay. I am glad that I can use the commission to further my goal of reviving her." Mikhail shot him a sympathetic look, before going right back to business. "We will need to arrange a further meeting with Sakaki-sama and our cloning team to discuss the modifications." "Right, right... Mikhail, please go and ask Sakaki when he would be available for the meeting and also inform our team about it. Instruct them also to research our options for modifications, like what genes we can use as filler for the gaps in order to create the strongest Pokémon possible. I want them to be able to present the results to Sakaki at the next meeting. Also take the blueprint of Mew's and... her DNA with you. Her genes are to be considered as filler as well. This is the ONE stipulation that I am insisting on, no matter what." 

"Yes, Sir." "Now, if you will excuse me... I need to go. I will be back at the meeting room within a few minutes." "Take your time, Sir. I will take care of everything in the meantime." "I know. I know I can count on you, Mikhail." As the young man turned to follow Team Rocket's leader out of the darkened lab, he said while leaving: "Please give her my regards." 

*********************  
The young brunette woman entered the room after re-adjusting the glasses on her nose and checking over the notes once more. She had been surprised by a sudden message that everybody had been called in for a group meeting in order to discuss something very important. She could only hope that she was ready for that - since she was pretty much fresh out of university, the resulting inexperience with the practical side of working in a group environment of yet another group of scientists was unknown to her. She didn't have a chance yet to pick up on the subtle rules of the group that usually differed from laboratory to laboratory and that mostly depended on the personality of the co-workers. In some environments, people were more outgoing - in others, they may be more introverted, which was the type of environment that was best suited to Monika's tastes, as she was introverted herself. As she waiting outside the door to the meeting room, she recognized Natalia coming over to her.   
"Hey Monika, how's it going?" "Pretty good, though I wonder why we have been called here." "I heard the rumor that this is the real deal now", Natalia said, "I was able to catch up with the others and they let me know that our beneficiary had been to this island not long ago. Rumor has it that the DNA of the Pokémon we are supposed to clone in our project has been completely sequenced now, but that we will have to create certain changes to the DNA." 

"Changes? Why change something that is already good to go?", Monika asked, but before Natalia could answer that question, she was interrupted as a man, who was also dressed in a white lab coat, stepped over to them. "It's not exactly good to go", he said in a russian accent, and nodded towards Monika: "I heard that we had a newcomer join our ranks recently. I am Mikhail Orlov, Dr. Fuji's right-hand man, so to say." The young woman introduced herself as well. "I am Monika Rogowska." "Nice to meet you. Now, as I just wanted to say: The results of the sequencing are in and warrant further discussion within our group. This is why I wanted all of Team C to meet." 

"So, is it true that we will have to apply changes to the DNA?" "Yes", the man replied, "because the DNA samples that we will base our work on came from a fossil, we unfortunately encountered... gaps. Huge gaps within the DNA. Now we need to discuss what to do about this problem." "Well, this is fitting", Monika remarked, "Dr. Fuji mentioned to me at our first meeting that he wants us to use human genes as filler, so if there are gaps in the blueprint already, then it will be no problem to use the gaps for the filler. Do we know what genes exactly we want to use here?" "I think it would depend on where the gaps are", Natalia answered her, "It won't be easy to fluidly integrate genes from cross-species. The being we create in this way will be a hybrid and might even turn out half human if we do this." This remark from her colleague made Monika pause in thought. Did they even have the official authorization to do this? As far as she knew, hybridization of Pokémon and Human material was highly illegal.   
Mikhail stopped both of them with a hand motion. "I know this is confusing, and we are far from having everything figured out yet. This, and our beneficiary has announced that he wants us to modify the genetic blueprint we have even more. He wants the being that we create to be even stronger than the original." The man didn't wait any longer, but stepped forward and opened the door into the meeting room, closing it behind him. Monika and Natalia were both too surprised to follow him into the room immediately. 

"I don't get it", the brunette said, "how the heck are we supposed to create a stronger Pokémon when we have no idea how strong the original was? This is a fossil, right?" "Monika, it's useless to just speculate on this. But, once we know what type of Pokémon this is, there is a fair chance to think a little bit more about the possible modifications. But for that, we need to get in and discuss this." Monika sighed, and got into the room after Natalia, finding a seat while both of them waited for the other members of the team to come in.   
A few minutes later, everybody had arrived and was ready to hear the announcements of Dr. Fuji's right hand man. 

 

"I welcome Team C to our group meeting", Mikhail Orlov started, "I have several things to announce before we begin. First off, one reminder for everyone here: what we will be discussing today is highly classified information and is not to leave the this room, much less the island. Any misdemeanor of this will be followed with a strict punishment. Please sign the document I will pass around - this is a binding agreement that you will uphold this rule." There was a bit of a shuffling and silence, while everyone was putting their signature under the document that was passed around. Mikhail waited patiently until it was back in his hands again. 

"Now that this is done, I want to get to the reason why I called you all here. I want to announce that we now have the genetic blueprint for our project ready. However, since the blueprint came from a fossil, we have encountered huge gaps in the DNA." The light in the room dimmed, revealing a large screen that came to life. Everybody in the room focused on the screen, the bluish light from it illuminating the faces of the people present. Mikhail explained: "What you can see here is the genetic code that we were able to successfully sequence. Our analysis has shown that we indeed have the DNA of the Legendary Phantom Pokémon Mew in our possession." This announcement made the scientists cheer all of a sudden, which confused Monika - everybody jumped up from their seats, shaking hands with each other, while the young woman awkwardly stayed in her seat, not getting what the ruckus was all about. Natalia, after having shaked the hands of her collegues, turned to her and smiled, explaining to her in a whisper: "We had sent an expedition team out into the Andes mountains a few months ago. After quite a long search, we were able to retrieve the fossil of an eyelash, but we weren't sure if this was really the fossil we hoped it would be. Now we have the confirmation that it is indeed what we wanted to find. Hence why everyone is so happy about it." Monika nodded and quietly thanked Natalia for the brief information. She still felt a bit like an outsider in this group, which was natural after she had joined this team only recently. She hoped that she would be able to integrate herself into the group over time, but it was clear that she had missed many of the happenings that have welded them together as a group.   
At least she was already able to put names to the faces that surrounded her. Of course she already knew Natalia, who seemed to have taken quite a liking to Monika, and in turn, the brunette woman got along with her the best out of all the team members. Then there was of course Mikhail, who Monika had come to find out as the right-hand man to Dr. Fuji and the one who instructed their research team on what they were to do next. Mikhail was apparently Russian, and it easy to tell from the accent that he spoke with. Dr. Amina Heath was also a scientist of their round; she was an attractive woman who usually wore a blonde bob haircut and was known for her work in the genetic field from all the way in America. She seemed a little bit vain, as Monika has seen her flip through some fashion magazine in her spare time. Besides Amina, there was also a woman with short mouse-grey hair by the name of Dr. Sky Frazier, though Monika didn't have much contact with her yet. Dr. Nadine Everett completed the gang of five women in their division.

As for the guys, besides Mikhail, there was also Dr. Elliot Wilkins, who she had gotten to know was a 36-year old junior doctor and was actually considered to be a newcomer here right before Monika joined their team and claimed this position for herself. He had brownish hair and green eyes and was of average build. Dr. Milo Searle was a bit more pudgy compared to him, but Milo was also around 50 years-old. Dr. Josiah Matthams was another one of the male members, with mid-length hair that was slightly curly, brown eyes and pale skin. Dr. Chase Camacho was the last male member of the team that Monika recognized by name, but without knowing much about him or his personality yet. 

 

Mikhail interrupted the cheering scientists with a wave of the hand to get their attention back. "I can understand your cheer, but we need to get back to the topic at hand, Ladies and Gentlemen! Now, while we have the DNA of the Legendary Mew in our possession, we have to solve another problem that has opened up to us. As I mentioned before, the DNA sample we currently have has large gaps that we need to fill in order to create a stable living being." One of the female scientists put a hand up to get Mikhail's attention. "I have a few questions", Sky Frazier asked, "First off, I wanted to confirm with you what type of Pokémon Mew is, as this would narrow down what we could use as filler." "Thank you, that is a valid question, and I can answer this from what information is currently available to us", Mikhail answered while clicking on a presenter monitor, which made a close-up of the genetic blueprint light up in front of the waiting scientists. Mikhail then used his laser pointer to circle a certain section of the DNA sequence. "As we can see here, this DNA section clearly bears a resemblance with our target having been a psychic type Pokémon."   
"So, does this mean that we will have to use just Psychic types to fill the gaps? How exactly are we going to go about doing this, and how is what we have going to help us figure out what to use?", Monika blurted out, earning a few chuckles from the surrounding scientists which made her blush slightly. Did she say something wrong? But the leading scientist didn't laugh at her, but took what she said into serious consideration. 

"Those are important questions, Dr. Rogowska, so I am glad that you are asking them", he encouraged her, "We also need to consider the stipulations that our benefactor is going to give to us soon. The Pokemon we are attempting to create is in fact a COMMISSION that has been assigned to us, and as such, we need to incorporate the wishes of the commissioner into this project as well. What exactly those wishes are, I don't know that yet, but I have been informed that we will be contacted about that soon. In the meantime, there is still lots to do. What I know from the commissioner so far is that they wish this being we are going to create to be as strong as possible, so I want you to research which Pokémon and genes you would consider as candidates for the genetic gaps. "   
"Wait a moment!", Natalia chimed in, "This being we are going to create... why does it matter if it's strong or not? Are we to actually create it to completion this time around? As we all know, so far none of our experimental subjects have ever made it out of the incubation tanks alive! All of them perished shortly before they finished their maturation process." This objection made all the scientists look at each other in defeat, for it was true: No matter what Pokémon they have tried to clone so far, none of them had survived the cloning process and nobody knew why. It couldn't be because of the amniotic fluid, because this had been already perfected - the clones could grow in them easily and didn't show any visible abnormalities; dissections of the already diseased clones couldn't bring to light what it was that caused them to perish either. Their organs looked healthy, so it couldn't have been organ failure. Was there some sort of stimuli missing? Or something important they had clearly overlooked, but they just couldn't put their finger on it. 

 

But this was a very disconcerting thought. Amina shook her head and commented: "Well, tough luck. At the current pace we are going, it may take us a further five to ten years until we have a living, breathing specimen that can survive outside the environment of the tank. I am not sure that our commissioner is really aware of this problem." "I don't care", Mikhail responded in a strict tone, "This problem HAS to be solved, and solved SOON nonetheless." "But what if we aren't able to?", Nadine countered, "will the commissioner be willing to wait as long as it takes until we achieve that goal?" Monika found herself nodding to those objections, and the atmosphere in the room has grown gloomy and a bit desperate. 

 

The room doors then slid open, interrupting all the scientists in the room from their discussion. As everyone looked up, they saw Dr. Fuji enter the room, a faint hint of a sad smile on his face. He has heard part of the last discussion as he picked off with the following: "That is why we need to focus on creating at least one living specimen that manages to survive outside of the incubation tank first." Mikhail took a step back, as Dr. Fuji moved to the podium, addressing everybody in the room. "First of all, I want to thank you all for coming and I want to excuse myself for being late. I also want to address the current problem at hand: As some of you have pointed out correctly, we have never managed to keep a cloned specimen alive long enough for it to leave its incubation tank unharmed. I want all of you to work together in order to identify the problem and solve it. As Mikhail has already mentioned, we cannot start working on the commission and the genetic editing that needs to be implemented with the Mew blueprint before this problem is solved anyway, especially if we have to wait for the exact specifications that our commissioner wants to implement. However, this doesn't prevent us from planning ahead. While I want everyone to work out the problem of keeping our specimens alive, I also want some of you to dedicate some of your time in order to plan the genetic code we want to use for our newly engineered organism. While our beneficiary will be giving us his own specifications, I also want some of our people to figure out what kind of genes we already have in our possession. Just having Mew's partial sequence is not enough, because we have to know what it encodes for." "So, you want us to essentially split up into three teams each, and everyone working on some major aspect of the overall project?", Dr. Wilkins asked, and Dr. Fuji nodded in response. 

"Yes, exactly, though I still want everyone to work together and brainstorm with each other. Now..." He turned around and wrote something on the whiteboard behind him with a dry-erase pen, listing three different groups: The first one he described as the "Gene-editing group", the second as the "Specimen survival group" and the third one as the "Mew encoding group". He turned back around to his audience, asking the dreaded question: "Do we have any volunteers for any of these groups?" "YES!", Natalia shouted out enthusiastically, grabbing Monika's hand with hers and putting both of them in the air, "We want to be in the gene editing group!" The older man nodded in response, smiling at this display of zeal. "Very well, I am happy to have you two join this group. I need to talk with you later, as I have a special request of you two to make. Now, as for the rest of the groups..." 

As the other people discussed which group they wanted to join, Monika glared at Natalia, who just smiled at her. "You never even asked me if I really wanted to do this!", she complained to the Blonde in a hushed whisper, but Natalia in turn shook her head. "Don't worry, Monika. I can tell you are nervous, but we will both be doing just fine!" That was easy for her to say, the brunette woman thought bitterly. Will she really be fine? After all, Monika was just fresh out of university and has never even worked on a project of a such a scale before, and they will be making a living being that will basically be a genetic mosaic. She ran a few ideas through her head, not really listening to the other scientists any more as their discussed their projects. "Ugh fine...", Monika replied to the still smiling Natalia, "I guess I will be working with you from now on." She offered her hand to the Blonde to shake it as an agreement. "I believe in you, Monika. If you have any questions, you can always come to me", Natalia reassured her, and she smiled back at her in response. 

After the discussions died down and everybody was handed out their assigned tasks, the respective groups stood up to go to their own respective drawing boards in the facility. Dr. Fuji came to Monika and Natalia with Mikhail Orlov in tow. "I think this means that we will be working together from now on", Dr. Fuji said to them in a welcoming smile, "I would like you to come with me for now, as we have lots to discuss. I also think that we need to get into contact with Sakaki-sama again soon and introduce them to him as well." Mikhail nodded, "Yes, I understand, but we should be taking this, one step at a time. For example, we need to provide them with the raw data first..." 

A short while later, both Natalia and Monika were given a stack of genetic data, with the task of figuring out what to do with it.


End file.
